Down on his knees

The NSW Murray Valley is in its second year of having zero general security water allocation, and stakeholders say the Murray Darling Basin Plan is to blame for compromising water security delivered through the NSW Water Sharing Plans.

‘‘One of the Liberal members who attended our information session made a sarcastic comment about us coming to Sydney and begging for help, so I dropped to my knees.

‘‘I said that on behalf of the 2000 people I represent as SRI chair who are losing their farms or at risk of losing their farms, I am not too proud to beg.

‘‘We need people to listing to us.

‘‘We have a water minister (Federal Minister for Water Resources David Littleproud) saying he can’t make it rain, but our dams are half full and we just need them to turn on the taps and let us grow food.

‘‘We could have grown the fodder to keep dairy farms alive, and we could have grown the wheat to avoid the need to import it.

‘‘I will do whatever it takes to get water back for irrigators, because everyone has a right to farm.

‘‘I told the room, and everyone I have met with since, that ‘you guys need to make some changes or you will be eating foreign food.’’

Mr Brooks, who gave the presentation with SRI deputy Darcy Hare, said all 134 members of the upper and lower houses were invited to attend the forum on Wednesday.

He said only up to 30 participated.

NSW Member for Murray Helen Dalton expressed her disappointment that so few members of parliament offered to listen the group farmers, who flew all the way to Sydney to explain the devastating impact poor water policy is having on their communities.

The session, coordinated by Rob Roberts MLC, was held during the lunch break on Wednesday.

‘‘We know Sydney MPs don’t like travelling out west. But I was saddened to see how few MPs showed up at the excellent presentation, especially after they (Mr Brooks and Mr Hare) travelled so far to get here,’’ Ms Dalton said.

‘‘They are telling a very important story. Most people in Sydney think drought has caused all our problems.

‘‘That’s not true in the south. There’s so much water being wasted along the Murray, Lachlan and Murrumbidgee rivers. We are losing jobs and lives due to the disastrous Murray-Daring Basin Plan.

‘‘It was nice to see a few Liberals at the presentation, and a Labor MP, but not one National MP — the so-called party of regional Australia — bothered to turn up.’’

Mr Brooks confirmed that he did receive a formal apology from one Nationals member unable to attend on Wednesday, who agreed to meet with the local delegation on Thursday.

He said they met with at least 20 more politicians or their advisors on Thursday.

Mr Brooks said a similar information forum will now be offered to members of the Federal Parliament.

‘‘We will look to do the same in Canberra in a few weeks. We’re just working out those details now,’’ he said.